It was just a month-and-a-half ago that José “GoToCa$hier” Quintas was wrapping up a remarkable 2014 with a victory in the Super Tuesday, worth just over $100K. As this week’s installment of the weekly $1,050 no-limit hold’em tournament showed, Quintas has kicked off 2015 in similarly successful fashion with yet another big score, only this time the Portuguese player came one spot shy of notching a second Super Tuesday win. Rather it was norfair18 of Costa Rica besting Quintas heads-up to claim the victory and a big $121,149 payday.
Those were the last two players from a big field of 641 who participated this week, that field building a prize pool of $641,000 that well exceeded the $400K guarantee. It was just over six hours after the tourney had begun that the cash bubble burst and they were down to 72. DwnByDaBridge enjoyed the chip lead at that point, having built a sizable lead over nearest challengers MuckCallOK and Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovskyi.
About two hours and 15 minutes later they were down to 18, with all three of those players still in the mix with average stacks and Russell “rdcrsn” Carson the new chip leader.
jknack10 (18th), Mohsin “sms9231” Charania (17th), and gerd401 (16th) next fell, each picking up $5,128.
TheAriton (15th), Max “$uperdecay” Lykov (14th), and former leader DwnByDaBridge (13th) were next out, picking up $6,410 apiece.
Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovskyi (12th) was then eliminated, followed by Dan “danloulou” Smyth (11th) and molda79 (10th), each taking away $7,692 from the prize pool.
With almost 10 hours of poker in the books and José “GoToCa$hier” Quintas the new chip leader, the final table was underway.
Seat 1: jayjayme (Canada) — 469,997
Seat 2: nailuj90 (Germany) — 376,380
Seat 3: Russell “rdcrsn” Carson (Canada) — 215,854
Seat 4: Jerry “hummylun” Wong (Canada) — 347,316
Seat 5: Agentul05 (Romania) — 192,591
Seat 6: MuckCallOK (Austria) — 449,736
Seat 7: norfair18 (Costa Rica) — 225,113
Seat 8: José “GoToCa$hier” Quintas (Portugal) — 851,993
Seat 9: Papa Leitini (Brazil) — 76,020
They played through the 10-hour mark, then a few minutes after that began an onslaught of knockouts with six players hitting the rail in just over half an hour.
The short stack Papa Leitini was the first out in ninth after pushing his last two-and-a-half big blinds from the small blind with K♣ 9♠ , getting called by jayjayme in the big blind with A♦ 7♣ , and failing to improve.
About 10 minutes passed, then a hand arose in which Jerry “hummylun” Wong raised 2x to 28,000 from early position, then norfair18 made it 72,000 to go from the cutoff. It folded back to Wong who shoved for about 390,000 total, and norfair18 called.
Wong had 10♥ 10♦ but had run into norfair18’s K♣ K♠ , and when no ten or any other favorable combination fell for Wong among the community cards, he was out in eighth.
Three hands later norfair18 opened from UTG, MuckCallOK shoved from the big blind for just over 174,000 (about 12.5 BBs), and norfair18 called. MuckCallOK had A♠ J♠ and two live cards against norfair18’s 3♦ 3♥ , but a trey flopped to make the ace on the turn not enough for MuckCallOK who finished seventh.
Just two hands after that nailuj90 min-raised to 28,000 from early position, Agentul05 reraised all in for just under 90,000 from the cutoff, jayjayme reraise-shoved for about 307,000 from the big blind, and nailuj90 — having both covered — called the latter’s push.
jayjayme: 8♦ 8♠
nailuj90: A♥ K♥
Agentul05: 3♣ 3♥
The flop came J♠ K♣ 2♦ to pair nailuj90’s king, and the 10♥ turn changed nothing. But the 8♣ came on fifth street to give jayjayme a set to survive. Meanwhile Agentul05 was sent railward in sixth.
They barely made it another orbit before norfair18 was raising, nailuj90 was defending the big blind with a call, and a flop came A♠ K♣ 7♠ . At that nailuj90 check-called a bet from norfair, then checked again after the 10♥ turn. norfair18 then bet enough to put nailuj90 all in, and nailuj90 called, showing K♠ 9♦ for second pair. But norfair18 had top pair with A♦ Q♦ , and after the 6♦ river nailuj90 collected fifth-place prize money.
Then on the very next hand after a Quintas open Russell “rdcrsn” Carson reraise-pushed his last 107,000 or so (less than seven BBs) with A♥ 9♣ and Quintas called, turning over 8♦ 8♠ . The board paired neither of Carson’s hole cards and they were down to three.
That flurry left norfair18 the leader with about 1.46 million, jayjayme next with just over 900,000, and José “GoToCa$hier” Quintas third with a little less than 840,000.
Things settled down thereafter, and the trio made it through the next half-hour to the 11-hour mark with the stacks not having changed too much. Twenty minutes later the blinds were 12,500/25,000 when norfair18 open-raised to 55,000 from the button, jayjayme shoved for almost 650,000 from the big blind, and norfair18 called.
jayjayme had K♥ J♣ while norfair18 showed A♦ 10♦ . The board came 6♦ 8♥ 3♠ , then 7♣ , then 4♥ , and jayjayme’s Super Tuesday run finished in third.
“I would look,” typed norfair18 as heads-up play began, then added by way of clarification:
norfair18: #
norfair18: s
norfair18: ?
Quintas ticked the box to indicate a willingness to talk about a possible deal, and soon the tourney was paused with norfair18 sitting with just over 2.42 million and Quintas having a little over a third of that with about 782,000.
Figures were produced (leaving $8,000 for which to play), with $107,200.72 being suggested for norfair18 and $94,726.78 for Quintas. Quintas soon indicated he’d like $100,000, and when norfair18 didn’t immediately acquiesce, Quintas brought up his recent Super Tuesday history.
GoToCa$hier: whats your name sr?
GoToCa$hier: i dont want be rude with you
norfair18: ?
GoToCa$hier: but i won this tournament 6 week ago
GoToCa$hier: and dindt do any deal
GoToCa$hier: so i think its far for you~
GoToCa$hier: you still be favorite for the rest 8k
norfair18: 1 flip away from not being a favorite
They continued to negotiate, with norfair18 expressing a willingness to give Quintas as much as $2K but Quintas continuing to petition for more. Eventually the discussion broke down, and cards were dealt once again with no deal having been made.
They’d play but a dozen hands more, with José “GoToCa$hier” Quintas slipping to just over 500,000 by the time the final hand took place. It began with a min-raise to 50,000 by Quintas from the button, with norfair18 responding with an all-in push and Quintas calling.
norfair18 had Q♥ 10♥ and was behind Quintas’s A♥ 5♥ , then the J♥ 2♠ A♣ paired Quintas’s ace to increase his edge. But the turn brought the 10♦ to give norfair18 hope, then the Q♠ fell on the river to make two pair and the better hand, good to secure the pot and the win.
Congratulations to norfair18 for beating a big Super Tuesday field to claim that $121K-plus first prize, and kudos as well to José “GoToCa$hier” Quintas for making it all of the way to the last hand of the Super Tuesday for the second time in less than two months on his way to tonight’s runner-up finish.
2/17/15 Super Tuesday ($1,050 No-Limit Hold’em) results
Entrants: 641
Prize pool: $641,000.00
Places paid: 72
1. norfair18 (Costa Rica) — $121,149.00
2. José “GoToCa$hier” Quintas (Portugal) — $88,778.50
3. jayjayme (Canada) — $65,382.00
4. Russell “rdcrsn” Carson (Canada) — $49,357.00
5. nailuj90 (Germany) — $34,614.00
6. Agentul05 (Romania) — $27,242.50
7. MuckCallOK (Austria) — $20,832.50
8. Jerry “hummylun” Wong (Canada) — $14,422.50
9. Papa Leitini (Brazil) — $9,807.30
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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